Target Practice
by ComicsCorner
Summary: Ezra takes on target practice lessons and who better to teach him than a Clone? A clone that Ezra cant help asking questions to. Now Eyein may not be so forthcoming on his...disbanding from the Empire, but he is willing to tell Ezra only a few of the painful details on his life as a mindless drone for the Empire. A bonding ONESHOT.


**_Lothal Outskirts_**

"Again." Ezra groans at Eyein's order to continue. Ever since the young jedi had designed part of his lightsaber to act as a blaster everyone agreed that it would be a good idea for Eyein to instruct him. Ezra supposed that he was lucky enough to have someone like Eyein for an instructor, what with his military history and everything. And it was a change of pace from jedi training with Kanan. Eyein wasn't that bad of a teacher, he was instructive, intelligent, focused, confident and disciplined. Ezra began to wonder if good teaching skills were a part of Eyein's programming, but he didn't ask of course because he knew it would be rude. The young jedi takes his position back behind the line that his instructor had drawn in the dirt. He placed his feet exactly as he had been taught; he takes aim, steadying his hands as well as his breathing, focusing in. He allows the force to help quiet his mind and shut down any outside noise. Then when the moment feels right he pull the trigger. Ezra stands in disappointment when he sees that he has once again missed the Stromtrooper helmet target. He may have been disappointed, but Eyein looked optimistic as he made his way over to the frustrated kid.

"I really thought that I had it that time." He sighs flipping up the visor to his cadet helmet.

"I know." Eyein shruged his shoulders.

"I don't understand why I keep missing."

"You're new to this. So it's gonna take some getting used to."

"Did you have trouble getting the hang of it when you were my age?"

Eyein sighs, giving a small smile as he scratches his buzz cut head. "That depends on your definition of age, Shorty." He begins to explain."Clones have hyper growth, so I was probably oooh I don't know…maybe a few weeks old when I began basic training."

"So you were grown in a laboratory." Ezra chuckled childishly. "I thought that was just a rumor." The clone shoots him a dirty look which instantly ends the young Jedi's mocking of him. "Sorry… didn't mean that."

Eyein manages a grin, indicating that he accepted the apology. Yeah…well growing in an artificial womb wasn't exactly how I thought my life would start out. But all of that was just the beginning.

"What else is there?" He asks curiously looking up to his instructor. but the Clone only shakes his head.

"Don't you still have a target to hit, Shorty?" Ezra was aware that Eyein was clearly trying to dodge the questions. Eyein has dodged majority of the questions involving his life as a Clone working for the Empire, there would be times when he would occasionally cut Ezra some slack when it came to questions. He doesn't know much about Clone, their manufacturing was cut off soon after recruitment was put into effect for those horrible Stormtroopers.

"Aww come on, tell me something." Ezra pleads childishly again batting his eyes. Eyein only cocks his eyebrow as he folds his arm.

"I was the first of many new CST's created by the Empire on Kamino. The program only lasted for a year until it was shut down to save profit, that's when the empire thought that it would be cheaper to draft their soldiers."

"So you never worked with Jedi?"

Eyein shakes his head sadly. "Nope….I always wanted to though." Eyein turns away from Ezra for a moment staring out into the outskirts, feeling the warmth of the sun as the breeze passes through me. "I once heard stories of how Clones were loyal to their Jedi generals…..How they were selfless soldiers, brave, compassionate and honorable. They had a sense of right and wrong, they were good soldiers." Ezra takes a seat next to Eyein on the ground when his voice began to slightly crack.

"You're a good soldier, Eyein."

The Clone disagrees heavily. "No…no I'm not…..You don't know about the horrible things that I've done. He was right about that. Ezra had little to no idea of what Eyein had done when he was a mindless drone for the Empire, almost completely unaware of what he was doing.

"But you're making up for it now."

"Won't matter how many good things I'll do. I have a face that is too common…it's too known by basically everyone in the galaxy. Everyone knows the face of a Clone…..and when they were the faces that basically brought down the Republic, you really don't forget them." Eye slowly turns his head back over to Ezra. "Doesn't matter if I look like a Clone or not, modeled after one person or not….I was still an agent of the Empire…..I did terrible things to good people." Ezra wasn't sure how to respond to this. He was still only scrapping the surface of Eyein's past and even these first few minutes was much more than he bargained for. Ezra has been on his own for so long, making little to no connections to anyone. Since he joined the crew Hera or Shana was usually the one who would console him in his times of need, but Ezra was never sure of how to give that same comfort to others.

"Look…I know that my opinion may not mean much to you, but if Clones really are copies of just one person…than they should be more like you." The soldier's eyes seem to widen with surprise when he hears these comforting words. Maybe he had managed to teach Ezra more than he had anticipated.

"I appreciate that, Shorty…..and hey, your opinion of me does matter. What you think of me matters to me."

"Sooooo does that mean you can tell me how you picked your name?" e asked allowing his instructor to help him up. This question makes Eyein cringe slightly as he hands the kid his weapon back.

"Still too soon, Shorty." He answers adjusting the target then taking a step back. Ezra once again takes his position behind the dirt line and again takes his time to aim. No longer focusing on the remaining questions that he had for Eyein, instead releasing that he could save them for another day.


End file.
